If you have ever walked into an “embassy” while traveling abroad, what you actually walked into was a chancery.

An embassy is the people, and the chancery is where they work. The same goes for us as a church.

Embassy Church is a people, not a place.

Our mission is to empower ambassadors to advance the message and ministry of Jesus where we live, work and play.

So how did Embassy Church come to be?

Our story really intertwines with the histories of two other churches in the U.S. — one in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and the other in Ames, Iowa.

In 2018, God opened doors for Chris Cook to plant a next-generation-focused church next to a college campus through The Salt Network. God lead the Cook family to move from Baton Rouge, Louisiana to Ames, Iowa to become a church planting candidate in preparation. God lead the Cook family to choose Bloomington and Indiana University as the place to plant a church to reach the city, the campus and the world. The hope was to plant Embassy Church in 2020.

Through major shifts due to the pandemic that began in 2020, God sustained members of the church plant launch team. They began to gather for the first time in the Cooks’ home and dream about establishing Embassy Church as a Kingdom outpost.

God established our college ministry, The Salt Company at Indiana University. Salt held their first Kickoff on August 27 on the rooftop terrace of The Graduate Hotel on Kirkwood. Embassy outgrew the Cooks’ home and begins to gather at The Graduate on Sunday mornings, with Salt gathering on Thursday evenings. Eventually, Embassy moved from The Graduate, to The Woolery Mill, and then to The Warehouse.

God is still writing our story, and this is what we know to be true:

20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.” 21 He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

— 2 Corinthians 5:20-21, CSB